‘Animal Classifier’ is an AI trained to divide animals into the following 14 categories:

(a)

belonging to the emperor,

(b)

embalmed,

(c)

tame,

(d)

sucking pigs,

(e)

sirens,

(f)

fabulous,

(g)

stray dogs,

(h)

included in the present classification,

(i)

frenzied,

(j)

innumerable,

(k)

drawn with a very fine camel hair brush,

(l)

et cetera,

(m)

having just broken the water pitcher,

(n)

that from a long way off look like flies.

Animal Classifier (documentation video), 2016.

The taxonomy is from the essay ‘The Analytical Language of John Wilkins’ by Jorge Luis Borges where he writes “it is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is.” He introduces the classification as an example of faulty human schemes.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Animal Classifier, 2016.

Image source used for the classification:
Flickr photos licensed under the terms of Creative Commons by 2.0.
List of the copyright holders: link